Art Faculty Member Receives Honorable Mention

Quattrone's prize-winning piece, Battito (Pulse)

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Monday, October 17, 2011

Rebecca Quattrone, an adjunct faculty member at York College since 2004, was recently honored by the Orsoni Smalti Veneziani Prize 2011, an international award for the field of Fine Art Mosaics.

Quattrone, who also teaches mosaics at YorkArts, ForeSight Vision Center and occasionally at York College, views her artwork the same way she views the students that she teaches.

“A mosaic contains tiny fragments (tessera), that we attempt to piece together in harmony and balance, to create a beautiful whole out of individual precious pieces of chaos,” she said. “Life is a mosaic. It relates to all aspects of my life. It is part of me just as essential and as vital my heart and my lungs, i.e., my life force.”

Quattrone had the opportunity to study abroad in Ravenna, Italy, with Byzantine Mosaic Master Luciana Notturni.

“The York College faculty enhancement grants allowed me to study with Luciana for two winters,” she said. “I wrote and submitted two different proposals for different levels of study with Luciana. I earned two certifications from the Scuola Arte del Mosaico, in basic and advanced Byzantine mosaic techniques and processes.”

Studying with this master helped Quattrone to gain the experience that ultimately created her prize-winning piece, Battito (Pulse). This piece is a visual metaphor for a very difficult period in the personal life of the artist, represented by the EKG blip of her heartbeat during the years of 2008-2009. The heartbeat pulse is represented in various shades of red smalti with a precious few pieces of 24k gold glass that represents the true treasures of Quattrone’s life – her children. The prize for this honor bestowed upon Quattrone is a kilo of 24k gold glass, which allows her to create a mosaic design utilizing this very precious and expensive material that she would not have otherwise been able to afford.

“This award provides the art department and the College in general with accreditation among the faculty,” said Quattrone. “In the mosaic art world, this recognition and honor by Orsoni Veneziani is one of the highest honors in my field and places me in the international mosaic world. I am so incredibly honored to be recognized by Orsoni. This honor places me among a very small but elite group of internationally known mosaic artists.”

In addition to the prestige that this award gives the College and the artist, Quattrone wants to use the recognition to help others – her York College students, community students, and especially her newest students at the ForSight Vision Center of York, Pa.

“I want my students and my audience to never doubt the power and strength of their will to succeed in any area of their lives,” she added. “I am the quintessential late bloomer and a testament to succeeding even under the most adverse situations. I am also incredibly grateful for those friends and family members who never doubted that my work could or would be recognized abroad, as well as within the United States.”

Check out more of Quattrone’s work on her website.

By Leah Pekofsky '13, Office of Communications intern